(1)(a) If the declaration fails to provide a method of amendment, the declaration may be amended as to all matters except those described in subsection (4) or subsection (8) if the amendment is approved by the owners of not less than two-thirds of the units. Except as to those matters described in subsection (4) or subsection (8), no declaration recorded after April 1, 1992, shall require that amendments be approved by more than four-fifths of the voting interests.
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Terms Used In Florida Statutes 718.110

  • Affidavit: A written statement of facts confirmed by the oath of the party making it, before a notary or officer having authority to administer oaths.
  • Amendment: A proposal to alter the text of a pending bill or other measure by striking out some of it, by inserting new language, or both. Before an amendment becomes part of the measure, thelegislature must agree to it.
  • Association: means , in addition to any entity responsible for the operation of common elements owned in undivided shares by unit owners, any entity which operates or maintains other real property in which unit owners have use rights, where membership in the entity is composed exclusively of unit owners or their elected or appointed representatives and is a required condition of unit ownership. See Florida Statutes 718.103
  • board: means the board of directors or other representative body which is responsible for administration of the association. See Florida Statutes 718.103
  • Bylaws: means the bylaws of the association as they are amended from time to time. See Florida Statutes 718.103
  • Common elements: means the portions of the condominium property not included in the units. See Florida Statutes 718.103
  • Common expenses: means all expenses properly incurred by the association in the performance of its duties, including expenses specified in…. See Florida Statutes 718.103
  • Common surplus: means the amount of all receipts or revenues, including assessments, rents, or profits, collected by a condominium association which exceeds common expenses. See Florida Statutes 718.103
  • Condominium: means that form of ownership of real property created pursuant to this chapter, which is comprised entirely of units that may be owned by one or more persons, and in which there is, appurtenant to each unit, an undivided share in common elements. See Florida Statutes 718.103
  • Condominium property: means the lands, leaseholds, and improvements, any personal property, and all easements and rights appurtenant thereto, regardless of whether contiguous, which are subjected to condominium ownership. See Florida Statutes 718.103
  • declaration of condominium: means the instrument or instruments by which a condominium is created, as they are from time to time amended. See Florida Statutes 718.103
  • Deed: The legal instrument used to transfer title in real property from one person to another.
  • Developer: means a person who creates a condominium or offers condominium parcels for sale or lease in the ordinary course of business, but does not include:
    (a) An owner or lessee of a condominium or cooperative unit who has acquired the unit for his or her own occupancy;
    (b) A cooperative association that creates a condominium by conversion of an existing residential cooperative after control of the association has been transferred to the unit owners if, following the conversion, the unit owners are the same persons who were unit owners of the cooperative and no units are offered for sale or lease to the public as part of the plan of conversion;
    (c) A bulk assignee or bulk buyer as defined in…. See Florida Statutes 718.103
  • Discovery: Lawyers' examination, before trial, of facts and documents in possession of the opponents to help the lawyers prepare for trial.
  • Jurisdiction: (1) The legal authority of a court to hear and decide a case. Concurrent jurisdiction exists when two courts have simultaneous responsibility for the same case. (2) The geographic area over which the court has authority to decide cases.
  • Land: means the surface of a legally described parcel of real property and includes, unless otherwise specified in the declaration and whether separate from or including such surface, airspace lying above and subterranean space lying below such surface. See Florida Statutes 718.103
  • Lien: A claim against real or personal property in satisfaction of a debt.
  • Limited common elements: means those common elements which are reserved for the use of a certain unit or units to the exclusion of all other units, as specified in the declaration. See Florida Statutes 718.103
  • Mortgage: The written agreement pledging property to a creditor as collateral for a loan.
  • Mortgagee: The person to whom property is mortgaged and who has loaned the money.
  • Multicondominium: means real property containing two or more condominiums, all of which are operated by the same association. See Florida Statutes 718.103
  • person: includes individuals, children, firms, associations, joint adventures, partnerships, estates, trusts, business trusts, syndicates, fiduciaries, corporations, and all other groups or combinations. See Florida Statutes 1.01
  • Plaintiff: The person who files the complaint in a civil lawsuit.
  • Service of process: The service of writs or summonses to the appropriate party.
  • Statute of limitations: A law that sets the time within which parties must take action to enforce their rights.
  • Unit: means a part of the condominium property which is subject to exclusive ownership. See Florida Statutes 718.103
  • Voting interests: means the voting rights distributed to the association members pursuant to…. See Florida Statutes 718.103
  • writing: includes handwriting, printing, typewriting, and all other methods and means of forming letters and characters upon paper, stone, wood, or other materials. See Florida Statutes 1.01
(b) No provision of the declaration shall be revised or amended by reference to its title or number only. Proposals to amend existing provisions of the declaration shall contain the full text of the provision to be amended; new words shall be inserted in the text and underlined; and words to be deleted shall be lined through with hyphens. However, if the proposed change is so extensive that this procedure would hinder, rather than assist, the understanding of the proposed amendment, it is not necessary to use underlining and hyphens as indicators of words added or deleted, but, instead, a notation must be inserted immediately preceding the proposed amendment in substantially the following language: “Substantial rewording of declaration. See provision   for present text.”
(c) Nonmaterial errors or omissions in the amendment process will not invalidate an otherwise properly promulgated amendment.
(2) An amendment, other than amendments made by the developer pursuant to ss. 718.104, 718.403, and 718.504(6), (7), and (9) without a vote of the unit owners and any rights the developer may have in the declaration to amend without consent of the unit owners which shall be limited to matters other than those under subsections (4) and (8), shall be evidenced by a certificate of the association which shall include the recording data identifying the declaration and shall be executed in the form required for the execution of a deed. An amendment by the developer must be evidenced in writing, but a certificate of the association is not required. The developer of a timeshare condominium may reserve specific rights in the declaration to amend the declaration without the consent of the unit owners.
(3) An amendment of a declaration is effective when properly recorded in the public records of the county where the declaration is recorded.
(4) Unless otherwise provided in the declaration as originally recorded, no amendment may change the configuration or size of any unit in any material fashion, materially alter or modify the appurtenances to the unit, or change the proportion or percentage by which the unit owner shares the common expenses of the condominium and owns the common surplus of the condominium unless the record owner of the unit and all record owners of liens on the unit join in the execution of the amendment and unless all the record owners of all other units in the same condominium approve the amendment. The acquisition of property by the association and material alterations or substantial additions to such property or the common elements by the association in accordance with s. 718.111(7) or s. 718.113, and amendments providing for the transfer of use rights in limited common elements pursuant to s. 718.106(2)(b) shall not be deemed to constitute a material alteration or modification of the appurtenances to the units. A declaration recorded after April 1, 1992, may not require the approval of less than a majority of total voting interests of the condominium for amendments under this subsection, unless otherwise required by a governmental entity.
(5) If it appears that through a scrivener’s error a unit has not been designated as owning an appropriate undivided share of the common elements or does not bear an appropriate share of the common expenses or that all the common expenses or interest in the common surplus or all of the common elements in the condominium have not been distributed in the declaration, so that the sum total of the shares of common elements which have been distributed or the sum total of the shares of the common expenses or ownership of common surplus fails to equal 100 percent, or if it appears that more than 100 percent of common elements or common expenses or ownership of the common surplus have been distributed, the error may be corrected by filing an amendment to the declaration approved by the board of administration or a majority of the unit owners.
(6) The common elements designated by the declaration may be enlarged by an amendment to the declaration. The amendment must describe the interest in the property and must submit the property to the terms of the declaration. The amendment must be approved and executed as provided in this section. The amendment divests the association of title to the land and vests title in the unit owners as part of the common elements, without naming them and without further conveyance, in the same proportion as the undivided shares in the common elements that are appurtenant to the unit owned by them.
(7) The declarations, bylaws, and common elements of two or more independent condominiums of a single complex may be merged to form a single condominium, upon the approval of such voting interest of each condominium as is required by the declaration for modifying the appurtenances to the units or changing the proportion or percentages by which the owners of the parcel share the common expenses and own the common surplus; upon the approval of all record owners of liens; and upon the recording of new or amended articles of incorporation, declarations, and bylaws.
(8) Unless otherwise provided in the declaration as originally recorded, no amendment to the declaration may permit timeshare estates to be created in any unit of the condominium, unless the record owner of each unit of the condominium and the record owners of liens on each unit of the condominium join in the execution of the amendment.
(9) If there is an omission or error in a declaration, or in any other document required by law to establish the condominium, the association may correct the error or omission by an amendment to the declaration or to the other document required to create a condominium in the manner provided in the declaration to amend the declaration or, if none is provided, by vote of a majority of the voting interests of the condominium. The amendment is effective when passed and approved and a certificate of amendment is executed and recorded as provided in subsections (2) and (3). This procedure for amendment cannot be used if such an amendment would materially or adversely affect property rights of unit owners, unless the affected unit owners consent in writing. This subsection does not restrict the powers of the association to otherwise amend the declaration, or other documentation, but authorizes a simple process of amendment requiring a lesser vote for the purpose of curing defects, errors, or omissions when the property rights of unit owners are not materially or adversely affected.
(10) If there is an omission or error in a declaration of condominium, or any other document required to establish the condominium, and the omission or error would affect the valid existence of the condominium, the circuit court may entertain a petition of one or more of the unit owners in the condominium, or of the association, to correct the error or omission, and the action may be a class action. The court may require that one or more methods of correcting the error or omission be submitted to the unit owners to determine the most acceptable correction. All unit owners, the association, and the mortgagees of a first mortgage of record must be joined as parties to the action. Service of process on unit owners may be by publication, but the plaintiff must furnish every unit owner not personally served with process with a copy of the petition and final decree of the court by certified mail, return receipt requested, at the unit owner’s last known residence address. If an action to determine whether the declaration or another condominium document complies with the mandatory requirements for the formation of a condominium is not brought within 3 years of the recording of the certificate of a surveyor and mapper pursuant to s. 718.104(4)(e) or the recording of an instrument that transfers title to a unit in the condominium which is not accompanied by a recorded assignment of developer rights in favor of the grantee of such unit, whichever occurs first, the declaration and other documents will effectively create a condominium, as of the date the declaration was recorded, regardless of whether the documents substantially comply with the mandatory requirements of law. However, both before and after the expiration of this 3-year period, the circuit court has jurisdiction to entertain a petition permitted under this subsection for the correction of the documentation, and other methods of amendment may be utilized to correct the errors or omissions at any time.
(11) The Legislature finds that the procurement of mortgagee consent to amendments that do not affect the rights or interests of mortgagees is an unreasonable and substantial logistical and financial burden on the unit owners and that there is a compelling state interest in enabling the members of a condominium association to approve amendments to the condominium documents through legal means. Accordingly, and notwithstanding any provision to the contrary contained in this section:

(a) As to any mortgage recorded on or after October 1, 2007, any provision in the declaration, articles of incorporation, or bylaws that requires the consent or joinder of some or all mortgagees of units or any other portion of the condominium property to or in amendments to the declaration, articles of incorporation, or bylaws or for any other matter shall be enforceable only as to the following matters:

1. Those matters described in subsections (4) and (8).
2. Amendments to the declaration, articles of incorporation, or bylaws that adversely affect the priority of the mortgagee’s lien or the mortgagee’s rights to foreclose its lien or that otherwise materially affect the rights and interests of the mortgagees.
(b) As to mortgages recorded before October 1, 2007, any existing provisions in the declaration, articles of incorporation, or bylaws requiring mortgagee consent shall be enforceable.
(c) In securing consent or joinder, the association shall be entitled to rely upon the public records to identify the holders of outstanding mortgages. The association may use the address provided in the original recorded mortgage document, unless there is a different address for the holder of the mortgage in a recorded assignment or modification of the mortgage, which recorded assignment or modification must reference the official records book and page on which the original mortgage was recorded. Once the association has identified the recorded mortgages of record, the association shall, in writing, request of each unit owner whose unit is encumbered by a mortgage of record any information the owner has in his or her possession regarding the name and address of the person to whom mortgage payments are currently being made. Notice shall be sent to such person if the address provided in the original recorded mortgage document is different from the name and address of the mortgagee or assignee of the mortgage as shown by the public record. The association shall be deemed to have complied with this requirement by making the written request of the unit owners required under this paragraph. Any notices required to be sent to the mortgagees under this paragraph shall be sent to all available addresses provided to the association.
(d) Any notice to the mortgagees required under paragraph (c) may be sent by a method that establishes proof of delivery, and any mortgagee who fails to respond within 60 days after the date of mailing shall be deemed to have consented to the amendment.
(e) For those amendments requiring mortgagee consent on or after October 1, 2007, in the event mortgagee consent is provided other than by properly recorded joinder, such consent shall be evidenced by affidavit of the association recorded in the public records of the county where the declaration is recorded. Any amendment adopted without the required consent of a mortgagee shall be voidable only by a mortgagee who was entitled to notice and an opportunity to consent. An action to void an amendment shall be subject to the statute of limitations beginning 5 years after the date of discovery as to the amendments described in subparagraphs (a)1. and 2. and 5 years after the date of recordation of the certificate of amendment for all other amendments. This provision shall apply to all mortgages, regardless of the date of recordation of the mortgage.
(f) Notwithstanding the provisions of this section, any amendment or amendments to conform a declaration of condominium to the insurance coverage provisions in s. 718.111(11) may be made as provided in that section.
(12)(a) With respect to an existing multicondominium association, any amendment to change the fractional or percentage share of liability for the common expenses of the association and ownership of the common surplus of the association must be approved by at least a majority of the total voting interests of each condominium operated by the association unless the declarations of all condominiums operated by the association uniformly require approval by a greater percentage of the voting interests of each condominium.
(b) Unless approval by a greater percentage of the voting interests of an existing multicondominium association is expressly required in the declaration of an existing condominium, the declaration may be amended upon approval of at least a majority of the total voting interests of each condominium operated by the multicondominium association for the purpose of:

1. Setting forth in the declaration the formula currently utilized, but not previously stated in the declaration, for determining the percentage or fractional shares of liability for the common expenses of the multicondominium association and ownership of the common surplus of the multicondominium association.
2. Providing for the creation or enlargement of a multicondominium association by the merger or consolidation of two or more associations and changing the name of the association, as appropriate.
(13) An amendment prohibiting unit owners from renting their units or altering the duration of the rental term or specifying or limiting the number of times unit owners are entitled to rent their units during a specified period applies only to unit owners who consent to the amendment and unit owners who acquire title to their units after the effective date of that amendment.
(14) Except for those portions of the common elements designed and intended to be used by all unit owners, a portion of the common elements serving only one unit or a group of units may be reclassified as a limited common element upon the vote required to amend the declaration as provided therein or as required under paragraph (1)(a), and shall not be considered an amendment pursuant to subsection (4). This is a clarification of existing law.
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